A Wee Home from Home

A pleasure from the past explains by omission how Glasgow has grown.

EVENT PREVIEW BY PHIL GATT.
PUBLISHED IN THE SKINNY 07 JANUARY 2010

Unsurprisingly for a revival of a twenty-year-old piece, A Wee Home from Home does feel slightly dated. Essentially a duet between musician Michael Marra and Frank McConnell, it dwells on Glasgow's reputation as both no mean city and welcome home, taking in slashings, loneliness and the finale in a "Scotch" sitting room of tartan and flashing lights.


Marra is a treat in himself: his rich voice has drawn comparisons with Tom Waits and his ability to capture a Scottish vernacular in song powers the production along, both melancholic and hopeful. McConnell inhabits the sadness of the traveller returning home to a cool welcome: the last twenty years have not tamed his technique, but do add poignancy to his childhood memory routines.


The vision of Glasgow does not account for the modern changes of the city: no hip bars in this West End, or bustling live music scenes, and the finale recreates a Scottishness that is beyond even kitsch. McConnell's choreography is straightforward, with none of the aggressive flourishes that see modern dancers shatter boundaries and scare the audience. Yet that is part of the pleasure: this is a solid, narrative dance, brave enough to tell an old story in an old manner.